LGBTQ news from Europe, Australia, and Canada

South Korea

The group claims that this is the first step in a legal challenge to the right to same-sex marriage in South Korea, and 11 same-sex couples have applied for marriage registration.

The couple filed an appeal in the district court after their marriage application was rejected by the local district office. The couple claims that the current law banning same-sex marriage violates their constitutional rights to equality and the pursuit of happiness.

Couples pursuing legal action include Kim Young-min and Seo Sung-wook, who won their case at the Supreme Court earlier this year. require the government to provide health benefits To same-sex partners. However, the National Health Insurance Agency ignores the ruling and continues to deny claims from same-sex couples, arguing that there are no clear legal standards for what constitutes a same-sex couple.

South Korea lacks a legal framework that recognizes same-sex couples and lacks national discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. Members of Congress also tend to be hostile to gay rights, and the Seoul Queer Culture Festival is facing cancellation. Repeated bans from the city government.

Courts have also taken inconsistent views on LGBTQ rights. In 2022, the Supreme Court significantly scaled back the law banning same-sex sex for soldiers, but this ruling was overturned the following year by the Constitutional Court, the equivalent highest court in South Korea’s judicial system.

cyprus

Cyprus’ parliament this week began considering a bill that would strengthen existing penalties for hate crimes in Cyprus, following a spate of violent attacks against LGBTQ people on the island over the past year.

The bill would increase the maximum sentence for anti-LGBTQ hate crimes from three to five years and double the maximum fine to 10,000 euros ($10,924.35).

The bill comes after more than 10 attacks on gay men were reported to police on the Mediterranean island of one million people this year alone.

Last month, a gay man claimed he was assaulted by a security guard outside a nightclub in Limassol.

Last year, police attacked five students at the Cyprus Polytechnic University of Limassol by throwing smoke bombs at an on-campus event organized by Accept-LGBTI, the country’s leading gay advocacy group, destroying the room and destroying attendees. An arrest warrant was issued for suspicion of assault. .

Separately, the government approved the country’s first draft national strategy for LGBTQ people.

The strategy will be drafted by the country’s human rights commissioner, which includes representatives from the ministries of justice, education, home affairs and health, as well as representatives from acceptance, LGBTI and academia.

The strategy’s goals are to align Cyprus legislation with European Union directives, combat discrimination, ensure equality and safety, and promote an inclusive society for the LGBTQ community.

Cyprus currently lacks comprehensive anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and no easy process for transgender people to update their legal gender. Both of these have become the norms expected of EU member states. The state also does not recognize same-sex marriage or adoption, although neighboring Greece legalized both earlier this year.

Netherlands

On National Coming Out Day, the Dutch Government Statistics Office released a report estimating that LGBTQ people make up about 18 percent of the country’s population. Approximately 2.7 million people.

The estimate comes from the bureau’s Safety and Criminality Survey last year, which also asked 182,000 participants about their gender identity and sexual orientation.

The study found that bisexual people make up by far the largest group within the country’s LGBTQ community, accounting for 1.7 million people, or just over 11 percent of the population, and that bisexual women make up about 1.7 million people more than men. It turned out to be 20% more. Conversely, gay men make up about 1.8 percent of the population and lesbians make up 0.7 percent of the population.

Asexuals make up just under 2 percent of the population, but just over 1 percent identify with some other non-heterosexual orientation or say they don’t yet know their sexual orientation.

It is estimated that about 1 percent of the population, or just under 200,000 people, are transgender or non-binary. The study estimates the intersex population at approximately 45,000 people, or 0.3 percent of the population.

The study found that LGBTQ people are more likely to be younger and live in urban areas than the general population. The study also found that the proportion of LGBTQ people born outside the Netherlands was slightly higher at 17% compared to 14% in the general population.

Germany

The German government has announced plans to amend its adoption law to allow lesbian couples to have children together and to allow unmarried couples to adopt.

The government says the new law recognizes the modern realities of adoption and childbirth.

Since same-sex marriage was legalized in Germany in 2017, married same-sex couples have the right to jointly adopt children. However, current laws remain a challenge for some couples.

For example, if a lesbian couple conceives a child through assisted reproduction, the non-birth parent is not automatically recognized as a parent and must go through a legal process to adopt their child.

The proposed law would address this issue, but would not address male couples who use surrogate mothers to conceive their children, as German law currently only recognizes single fathers.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled earlier this year opening the door to legal recognition of multi-parent families, but gave lawmakers until June 2025 to figure out how it would work. However, the bill states that children will continue to have only two legal parents.

“The troublesome issue of step-adoption for single-parent families must end. After all, children in rainbow families have the right from birth to have two parents, regardless of their gender. “, Patrick Doll, director of the Queer Diversity Association, Germany’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said in an article. Statement to German newspaper DW.

The proposal would also increase adoption flexibility by allowing unmarried couples to adopt jointly. Under current law, if a couple is unmarried, only one person can be legally recognized as the adoptive parent.

The bill is currently being submitted for consultation with German state governments.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal last week heard a case seeking to establish that same-sex couples can inherit each other’s property, the latest case over the rights of same-sex couples to be filed in the city’s top court.

Last month, the Court of Final Appeal heard a case challenging the city government’s administration. Unequal treatment of same-sex couples seeking access to social housing. Both cases follow a 2023 ruling that the government must provide legal recognition to same-sex couples by a 2025 deadline.

The inheritance suit was filed in 2019 by Edgar Ng, who learned that her husband, Henry Lee, could not inherit a government-subsidized apartment without a will. Mr. Ng passed away in December 2020, and Mr. Lee continues to pursue his lawsuit.

Government lawyers said in court that the city did not recognize Mr Ng and Mr Lee’s overseas marriage and that heterosexual couples have a legal responsibility to support each other financially. Said it was different. The government’s position is that until the government creates a framework for the registration of same-sex couples, courts should not address inheritance rights because of the potential for inconsistency in the law.

Meanwhile, Mr Lee’s lawyers objected to the suggestion that inheritance issues could be resolved with a written will, saying that in Hong Kong most people die without a will and that unlike a legal marriage, a written will is He argued that it could be contested.

The court reserved judgment for a later date.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997 with the understanding that it would continue to operate as an autonomous unit for 50 years.